Toronto’s mayor is both a populist and an elitist

Ever since he was elected mayor, a battle has raged between admirers and detractors of Rob Ford over whether he’s a man of the people or an elitist.

I’d argue he’s both.

In his political agenda — lowering taxes, contracting out, reducing political perks, ending the so-called “gravy train” at City Hall — Ford has an instinctive feel for the public’s mood, one that abhors wasteful spending by governments, particularly in hard times.

In that sense, he’s a populist politician, fighting for the average taxpayer.

But in his personal conduct, he often appears to harbor the belief that the rules and standards that should apply to everyone else — including fellow politicians — don’t apply to him.

Ford should have realized, for example, how inappropriate it was for him to become personally involved in asking city officials to effect drainage and pothole repairs outside his family business — Deco Labels — for its 50th anniversary.

It doesn’t matter that other businesses may make similar requests, or that the city may fulfill them.

What matters is the civil servants receiving his request know Ford is the mayor and common sense tells us this may affect how they handle it.

Similarly, Ford put TTC CEO Andy Byford in an impossible position when he telephoned him after a minor altercation with a streetcar driver over whether Ford had improperly driven past the vehicle’s open doors. What did the mayor expect Byford to do?

Byford has since rightly told the mayor not to phone him on personal matters, after Ford called him again to ask what was taking a TTC bus so long to take Ford’s Don Bosco Eagles football team home from an away game.

The police subsequently said they, not Ford, ordered the bus because of their concerns about a possible escalation of tensions between the two teams, resulting in 50 TTC passengers being bumped so the bus could be diverted to pick up Ford’s team.

But the real question is whether the police were influenced by their knowledge that not only is Ford mayor, but that he insists on personally coaching the team, even against the advice of his political allies, who call it a distraction.

When Ford was confronted with a photo showing him reading while driving on the Gardiner Expressway, his initial reaction — although he later expressed regret — was to dismiss it because, as he said, he’s a busy man.

Well, lots of people are busy. And while few of us can say we’ve never done what Ford did, when a mayor — who refuses to hire a driver, again against the advice of his political allies — dismisses driving while distracted in such a cavalier manner, he sets a poor example for the public.

When he was a councillor, Ford’s initial reaction when confronted by a complaint from a couple that he had behaved boorishly towards them during a drunken outburst at a Leafs hockey game, was to lie. Ford claimed he hadn’t been there. He later apologized.

When the Sun asked Ford during the 2010 mayoral race about a marijuana bust in Florida in 1999, he initially denied it. Only after being shown documentary evidence, did he confirm the story and a day later, that he had also failed to take a breathalyzer.

Finally, there was Ford’s recent call to eliminate the city’s integrity commissioner and ombudsman, apparently because he doesn’t like it when they rule against him, rulings he often ignores.

That doesn’t sound like someone who considers himself an average Joe. It sounds like someone who believes he deserves special treatment.

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This is my first column as a freelance journalist for the Sun. Regular readers may know I was laid off last week. Since then, I have been overwhelmed by the kind words I have received from readers, present and former colleagues and competitors. I can’t thank them enough and my thoughts are with my colleagues who were also impacted last week.